CAIR : " Moderate Friends of Terror " Conducting Sacramento Police Training Sessions

"Moderate Friends of Terror" Conducting Sacramento Police Training Sessions

According to their newsletter, the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] is providing multicultural training material and instruction services for the Sacramento - and other area – Police Departments.

"The Sacramento Valley office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV) recently conducted diversity training for 46 graduates at the Sacramento Police Training Academy.

The CAIR-SV representative offered a presentation designed to make the graduates aware of issues that they might face when dealing with the diverse Muslim community in Sacramento.

"From speaking to the staff and recruits, the training was well received…The recruits appreciated the information," said Academy Commander Sergeant Floyd Harvey. "Diversity training is important for our staff so that they can learn about other cultures and religions. Muslims form a big part of the Sacramento Community and the Police Department represents and works for all."

Topics addressed in the presentation included the basic tenets of the Islamic faith, the status of women in Islam, the diversity of the American Muslim community, and ways in which area Muslims can have better relations with law enforcement authorities. A question-and-answer session followed the presentation." – CAIR-IslamInfonet, 7/7/05

In the wake of the London al-Qaeda bombings we thought that the Sacramento authorities might want to be made aware of the controversial reputation of CAIR.

This was not the case however, as the information that we provided - that three members of CAIR had been convicted on terror related charges and that one of the three would be sentenced on 21 Federal terror-related counts in Texas on August 1, was rejected as being irrelevant.

The following is a synopsis of the information that I provided to Sacramento Police information officer, Michelle Lasark on July 8, 2005.

On August 1, Ghassan Elashi - a founding member of the Texas chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] Texas chapter and who convicted of terrorism-related charges on April 14, 2005 – will be sentenced in Dallas, Texas. Elashi was found guilty on every one of the 21 federal counts that he faced, which included - conspiracy, money laundering and dealing in the property of a terrorist. Government prosecutors said each count carries a possible 10-year prison sentence.

"In December 2002, a federal grand jury in Dallas returned an indictment against a senior leader of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzouk, for conspiring to violate US laws that prohibit dealing in terrorist funds. Also charged and arrested by the FBI were Ghassan Elashi the chairman of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a charitable organization designated as a terrorist organization by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control because of its fundraising activities on behalf of Hamas." - Testimony of Gary M. Bald, Acting Assistant Director, Counter terrorism Division, FBI, before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control – 3/4/04

"CAIR actively raised money for [Holy Land Foundation] HLF via their mailing list. In 2001, HLF's assets were frozen by the Treasury Department, which found the organization to be a Hamas conduit. The Texas chapter of CAIR and HLF share a common founder in Ghassan Elashi. As stated above, Elashi himself was present at the 1993 Philadelphia meeting that planned Hamas fundraising in the United States. This meeting shows that future leadership of CAIR participated in meetings with senior Hamas leaders and discussed Hamas fundraising in the United States." - Testimony of Matthew Epstein, Assistant Director, The Investigative Project, before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism – 9/10/03

Two other former members of CAIR have been convicted on terror related charges and one of their advisory board members is an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing.

Bassem Khafagi - former director of Community Relation for CAIR, plead guilty to bank and visa and has been deported to Egypt. According to Fox News, "The FBI said Khafagi is a founding member of the Islamic Assembly of North America, a charity that purports to promote Islam...Federal investigators said Islamic Assembly has funneled money to activities supporting terrorism and has published material advocating suicide attacks on the United States.

Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer - a former communications & civil rights specialist for CAIR, according to AP "Royer...admitted helping members of the conspiracy join the militant Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks. He pleaded guilty to the use of a firearm in a crime of violence and aiding and abetting the carrying of an explosive during commission of a felony. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison."

Siraj Wahhaj - CAIR advisory board member named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel Rahman 1993 World Trade Center bomb plots by US Prosecutor Mary Jo White. Rahman is serving a life sentence.

In regard to our inquiry, Ms. Lasark returned our call, her statement is as follows:

"I called the academy staff and our intelligence section and a bunch of people…we have been using these guys for quite some time…they teach both the Sheriff's department, and our police department, Davis and West Sac…and the thought process that we use…we can't isolate just, because there's a few bad seeds in the organization that it doesn't mean that the whole organization is bad…we have to stand by the fact that its not the whole organization that's bad…just because some members of the Texas branch were arrested…it goes with any organization…these people aren't terrorists."

No these CAIR trainers personally, aren't terrorists; however people within the CAIR organization have been convicted as terrorists.

Apparently, at least in Sacramento and surrounding areas, the multicultural acceptance bar been raised so high that unless CAIRS's police department trainers actually walk into the classrooms wearing bomb belts and brandishing full-auto AK 47s, any transgression by the parent organization are simply of no consequence.

This is a remarkable explanation, one that borders on the ridiculous.

Are Nazis to be given access to Sacramento police training establishment on the basis that just because Hitler and Goering were bad seeds that's no reason to brand all Nazis with the same broad brush?

What the Sacramento - and surrounding area – police departments have done allowing a terror-friendly organization to conduct multicultural training sessions is to not only allow CAIR's instructors to spread misleading information regarding Islam, but they have helped legitimize exactly the people that should be under scrutiny in the heightened state of concern over national security which stems from the Islamist threat which was amply demonstrated in the recent London bombing and the unfolding investigation into the Lodi, California al-Qaeda terror sleeper cell which as we go to press involves at least 10 potential jihaddists.

For further fleshing out of just where CAIR stands with regard to terror, we have included the following few paragraphs from the noted and respected expert on Islamic terrorism, Dr. Daniel Pipes.

"The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations presents itself as just another civil-rights group. "We are similar to a Muslim NAACP," says spokesman Ibrahim Hooper. Its public language - about promoting "interest and understanding among the general public with regards to Islam and Muslims in North America" - certainly boosts an image of moderation.

That reputation has permitted CAIR to prosper since its founding in 1994, garnering sizeable donations, invitations to the White House, respectful media citations and a serious hearing by corporations.

In reality, CAIR is something quite different. For starters, it's on the wrong side in the war on terrorism. One indication came in October 1998, when the group demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing Osama bin Laden as "the sworn enemy," finding this depiction "offensive to Muslims." - CAIR - "Moderate" Friends Of Terror - Daniel Pipes, 4/22/02

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